I bought and returned the D7000 due to unmanageable issues and decided to hold off for a while.

It turns out I'm glad it did.

This focus thing might not be a bug in the camera, but it does seem to be widespread and troublesome, and worse of all, 'inconsistent'. It's clearly 'something', but something that doesn't seem repeatable for everyone every time.

Fixing with the 'fine tune' adjustment doesn't seem like a comfortable solution. I might be 'old school', but the camera has a focal plane position mark (the o with the line through it - on the top of the body) that specifies the distance from the flange to the sensor. I have zero nostalgia for the dark room, but 'lens-ology' tells me that this should be enough for lens makers to figure out what works for focus.

I suspect the complexity of the range of contrast is the culprit, but still, that should be a bug best worked out prior to shipping product. I think there's a 13-lens limit, and I would be one of the folks that would either not be able to use all their lenses or have to put some up for sale (of course, I really don't use _all of them_ now.) ;-)

I have a great sympathy for all the contrast situations and all the lenses that are put on the cameras, but this situation isn't confidence building in the least.

Johnnyapple has, in my eyes anyway, a sort of 'honorary moderator' status. Like frequent flyer miles - he gets bumped up to first class.

Andrew, it was an April Fool's joke that hasn't gone away. All I had to do was send $20 to Niko and I became the first platinum member of the forum. When I refused to renew my member status he changed me to goldmember. (Rumor has it that adamz will do it for $15.)

Hi everyone,
Have been "reading" :) this forum for a long time and this is my 2nd post. I just bought a D7K and the Nikon 18-200mm VRII lens. When I tried to shoot some video, turned on the LCD, I started to hear some "strange" soud from the lens as well as during the video shooting... Is this normal or I got a defective lens or camera ??? I am a newbie here, so dont be "hard" on me :)
Thanks guys.

sunbytz said:
When I tried to shoot some video, turned on the LCD, I started to hear some "strange" soud from the lens as well as during the video shooting.

Maybe it's your VR motor? Does it make the sound when shooting stills?

spraynpray said:
Yikes, reading this thread makes me glad my finances make me a laggard not an innovator. If I'd just bought a D7000 and had these problems it would be jammed somewhere the sun don't shine by now . . . Hopefully by the time (if ever) I'm good enough to justify one they will have sorted them out . . .

Mike Gunter said:
I bought and returned the D7000 due to unmanageable issues and decided to hold off for a while . . . This focus thing might not be a bug in the camera, but it does seem to be widespread and troublesome, and worse of all, 'inconsistent'. It's clearly 'something', but something that doesn't seem repeatable for everyone every time.

The stuck pixel issue was clearly a problem, and likely widespread. It's 100% fixed, as far as I'm concerned, with the Nikon v1.1 firmware upgrade installed. I'm not having the AF issue. I'm not even exactly clear on what the issue is. For my money, the D7000 is the best camera I've ever owned, and I think, the best buy for $1,199 from Nikon ever. The 1080p24 video is head-and-shoulders better than the D90's. The D7000 also has near-D300 class performance (love that 6 fps!). It shoots at high ISOs with less noise. And, with its virtual horizon feature (which I use constantly), I have near-zero need to horizon-correct in Photoshop. For me, the D7000 is a HUGE step-up from my D90. It's a terrific camera!

sunbytz said:
If there isn't that sound in Manual mode and Auto mode, that means that there is a problem with my D7K.(not with the lens ) Is that right ?

Your last statement is unclear. It may be normal, it may not be. It may be just the auto-focus' normal sound while "hunting" for "accurate" focus. Try turning auto-focus "off" in D-Movie mode. Or, take it to your dealer and see what they say (even if you didn't buy it there--but, try to buy a bag or something while you're there).

excuse me for being new, and late, and not quite getting to read the whole thread...

I found that my back focus issues go away with ample lighting. Which is great, except we all want to take shots in low light, even with flash on it'll have an issue. I'm using 50mm 1.8d.

The only thing that helps in low light situations is to use the AF assist illuminator. I've been attempting to play with the exposure, ISO, and aperture a bit to see if there's any variation. I'm wondering if there's something going on with the communication between the lens and the camera.

I feel like it's more firmware related. I hear some people had used AF fine tune, but how does that relate to back focus?

I've been testing some more. I did some extra cleaning of my lens just in case, then I did a few test shots to see how sharp it was at different apertures. It was good, to be honest.

After the testing, I then sampled different shots in different values under af fine tune. I found that it worked best with af fine tune off. Through several tests. I know now it's definitely not my lens.

Then I remembered, this camera weighs a ton compared to my entry level nikon dslr. I wondered then if I was just getting too much shake from my body or even my arms quivering under the weight of the D70000. When I was holding it tight and still, it performed great!!! -human error. Keep that in mind, going to try more testing again.

My D7000 has suddenly lost function in auto-focus. A search in Internet has found many people have the same problem. I have a chat with the guy in Nikon service center and it may cost me a fortune as I need to pay for the shippment fee and service fee etc.

However, that guy has told me a secret of D7000: There is a design fault in the camera that the "metal pins" on the len ring is too big to match with a normal camera len - What they do in the service center is replacing the pins with a smaller size.

From the customer point of view, if the problem is come from the camera design fault, why don't the Nikon make a gobal recall to his faulty product and fix the problem for free? Instead, Nikon just let a lot of his valuable customer suffer (with very BAD reputation building up of course) and bear the expensive repairing cost.

In my case, I have "Fixed" the auto-focus problem by taking out the camera len from the body and put it back very carefully again. This time I also rotate the camera len back and forth a few times (I have found it can still move a bit!) even the len has already locked in position.

And the auto-focus is working again! However, I am just worried when will the auto-focus fail again - Just pray it does not happen at the most important moment...

I am just feeling sorry for any D7000 owner without the faulty pin replacement will have the auto-focus not working at ANY time - So don't be happy too soon if you don't have any problem at all, it is just a matter of time (like a time bomb).

jim43 said:
Does anyone know if Nikon has exact AF Fine Tune settings for each of their lenses so I don't have to perform the test myself

They don't because they can't.

They don't design nor set out to build lenses (and bodies) with imperfect focus, and one should not need to ever tweak their focus in a perfect world

Nikon allows one to tweak the AF setting for their unique paring because compounding errors can lead to combinations of lens and body which exceed tolerances to the point where misalignments are visible.

Hi guys. Listen to me it is very important, I am also a owner of a D7000 and it also has a problem with focusing. I did many mant tests and came to the conclusion that this model has indeed a problem on focusing.
After lots and lots of tests where I had it in auto focus and then I manually focused found a much more easyest way to test if your camera has a problem.
First of all you must NOT be in live mode, have your camera on a tripod, put a 18mm lense on, give it a single point to focus and try the point that you gave her to focus to have almost or smaller size than the focus point in the viewfinder, if you do that you are absolutely ready to test your camera. Press to focus button till the middle and check the ring of your lense as ir rotates to get the distance from the subject, when it is finished with the wrong focusing (here the bib) without shooting anything press again and again and again the focus button, you will see the every time the distance in the lense changes!
So its a random play if you catch it to focus!!! This is outrageous!!!
I also have a D300 and of course there is not such a problem!! It finds the focus point and stays there forever!!!
Ok listen to me we must all send a message to NIKON to show them how dissapointed we are, I have already send.
If we send many people they will be forced to fix the problem or change our cameras. I don't want a camera for which a payd 1200$ not to be as I want it to be!
Here is the mail I send to NIKON

"Hi there, I am a very old costumer of yours and I have always used nikon products.
I have desided after my D50, my D90 and my D300 to upgrade to D7000 since in the papers it is a much more better camera.
My question is the following, I have this camera about a month now and I am very dissapointed!
It is impossible for the camera to focus right! This is a very serious problem wich I believe it is not a firmware problem but it is a hardware problem.
I am concidering of sending my camera to the service but I really need it and from what I read in the internet and in forums the problem can not be fixed!
It is outrages for you costumers and for a product that we payd 1200$ not to focus.
So the question is, are going to do something about it?
In the internet there are plenty of forums that talk about your broken product!"

If many of as send them they will be forced to fix the problem one way or another!!!!

I upgraded from the d90 to the d7000 about a month ago. I also got the new nikkor 18-200 VR... After about a week I started to experience AF issues. Completely resetting my camera to default settings I still had AF problems. It's like the lens would focus fine for the first 20 shots but then when I tried to zoom in or out I could see like a flicker like it was trying to engage the lens but then failed to catch a gear or something. Very intermittent. I could take the lens off and on and get it to work again for a few shots and then it would quit all together. At first I thought it was the new lens as my non motorized lenses seem to work fine. After returning my new 18-200 and getting a new replacement nikkor 18-200 lens and having the same problems I took my camera to a Nikon servicing center we actually have in San Diego. They said the body definitely had an AF problem but said it could be many different things and that this camera was so new that there were not servicing them yet. They advised to send to Nikon servicing center for repair. Just sent it to them the other day. Hopeful it will be a known fix and I can report back good news.

Ok well after reading this thread I'm a bit nervous about my recent purchase of the the D7000. I've had the camera for a couple of weeks and have memorized the manual as well as several books. Using the 18-105 lens and the 70-300 lens everything worked as expected. I also placed my 50mm 1.8D lens on, again everything seemed to work ok.
Today I placed my 18-105 lens on and the Auto Focus feature (39 point feature) is not working. It is locked on (single point) no matter what I changed the AF mode too. This is all in Aperture mode. I can get the multi point focus back under some of the other settings (like scene mode). Thought I was loosing my mind, but returned to the camera shop and they had the same issue with the camera. They gave me a new camera with the kit 18-105 lens and under the same settings (Aperture mode and 39 point auto focus mode) everything worked as I remember, so no I wasn't loosing my mind.
Since this was my first purchase from Nikon to the toon of $2500+, is this something that is going to be ongoing or did anybody from this tread get a solution? Was it something to do with the 50mm 1.8D lens that changed a setting in the camera? any feedback would be appreciated. Should I see if the camera shop will exchange for the D300?

If you can rotate the mode to auto and find that the auto focus multiple zone is back, that's what happened.

Check the manual at Page 50. The button selector is located on the Auto/manual lens switch next to the barrel of the lens. Push the button in and the Main Command Dial (the front one) will go through the various options available in the auto focusing zones. I prefer a single auto focus block to put focus on one 'thing', but that's me.